A 19-year-old Michigan man has been charged with threatening a mass killing at a synagogue on the fifth anniversary of the March 15 Christchurch mosque massacre, US federal officials say.
Seann Patrick Pietila of Pickford, a township in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, was arrested on Friday and charged with transmitting a communication containing a threat to injure another, the US Attorney’s Office said. Prosecutors say he planned to target the Shaarey Zedek congregation in East Lansing.
He allegedly made threats on social media, including Instagram, that included comments about neo-Nazi ideology, antisemitism and glorifying mass shootings, most notably the 2019 shootings in Christchurch, The Detroit News reported.
Pietila was arrested the same day a truck driver was convicted of storming a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018 and fatally shooting 11 congregants in an act of antisemitic terror. The attack at the Tree of Life synagogue was the deadliest attack on Jews in US history and came after the attacker had ranted incessantly on social media about his hatred of Jewish people.
Rabbi Amy Bigman of Shaarey Zedek said the synagogue had notified its congregation of 220 families after learning Friday afternoon about the investigation from FBI agents, and that an arrest had been made and that person had been charged.